Liquor bill tests Ehrlich's loyalties

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. is facing a choice between some of his most ardent supporters and one of his prized Baltimore strongholds as he weighs whether to veto a seemingly obscure liquor licensing bill.

The legislation - passed unanimously by the General Assembly - puts the governor in the middle of an increasingly ugly local dispute over whether to allow a tavern to open in a former firehouse in Canton. Whatever he decides, he will disappoint some of his friends.

Ehrlich aides say the legislation has generated more letters than any other bill passed this session - most of it favorable. Nevertheless, they say, a veto is a possibility.

On one side of the fight are two enthusiastic Republican entrepreneurs who held a campaign fund-raiser for Ehrlich at their South Baltimore tavern last year. Their effort to put a new bar in Canton is supported by a politically active union that worked hard to elect Ehrlich.

On the other side are community associations and local elected officials representing what appears to be the prevailing sentiment of Canton residents.

Local business owners are divided in what one local resident described as an extended soap opera. The rhetoric has reached the level where one business owner is accusing another of acting like Saddam Hussein.

The legislation in question is a local bill that would extend to the entire 46th Legislative District an existing city ban on new or transferred liquor licenses within 300 feet of a school or church. The measure would apply to the liquor license application for the proposed Firehorse Tavern in the old firehouse.

The bill is the type of measure that is usually signed quickly after a legislative session ends.

But more than a month after lawmakers left Annapolis, the liquor bill lingers on Ehrlich's desk. And with the deadline for a decision fast approaching, a top Ehrlich aide said the bill may not pass muster.

Ehrlich's decision

"It's a very difficult bill for the governor," said top Ehrlich spokesman Paul E. Schurick. "In a nutshell, people who want it signed into law are people who don't want any more liquor licenses in that community. The people who want it vetoed feel there's an issue of fairness and open competition at stake."

Kenneth H. Masters, the governor's chief legislative aide, said he has a thick file of letters about the bill - most of them in favor of signing it. "If we were going to decide this by the pound, the proponents would clearly win," he said.

The governor has until May 27 to issue a veto, but the decision is likely to be made by Thursday, when Ehrlich will hold his final bill-signing ceremony. A third option is to let the bill become law without his signature.

Urging a veto are the owners of South Baltimore's Ropewalk Tavern - a proudly Republican watering hole on South Charles Street, just across from the Stonewall Democratic Club.

The bar, which displays several busts of Ronald Reagan, is a favorite GOP hangout operated by brothers Marc and William McFaul.

The two brothers together donated $700 to Ehrlich's gubernatorial campaign. The tavern gave $250 in cash and $7,241 in food and beverages for an Ehrlich fund-raiser.

The McFaul brothers have signed a lease with a fire officers' union local, which also supported Ehrlich, to take over the first floor of the former firehouse, which sits on the western end of O'Donnell Square.

The formerly sleepy square has evolved over the past decade into one of the city's most prosperous tavern districts - a kind of upscale Fells Point where affluent harborside condo dwellers mingle with suburban visitors. More than a dozen taverns and restaurants surround the small urban park.

Community opposition

Community activists, backed by their City Council members and state legislators, say that is more than enough for one small neighborhood. They note the firehouse backs onto the Father Kolbe School's small, grassy play area. And most of all they point out the neighborhood's "horrendous" parking problems.

"We feel something the size of the firehouse would just tip the scales, and the balance we have here would be lost forever," said Michele Barnycz, president of Friends of O'Donnell Square and a board member of the Canton Community Association. Both groups have asked the governor to sign the legislation.

Marc McFaul contends that the opposition is driven not by neighbors' concerns, but by the desire of local tavern owners to stifle competition. He accused his one-time friends Patrick "Scunny" McCusker of Nacho Mama's and Michael Clarke of Claddagh Pub of spearheading the opposition.

"Because they were there first, they don't want outsiders," McFaul said.

McFaul accused McCusker and Clarke of spreading lies that he plans to put a "mega-bar" with a dance hall into the 4,490 square feet on the first floor of the building. The Baltimore Fire Officers Association, which says it needs the rent money to keep up the building, will continue to use the second floor.

The Ropewalk owner rejected his opponents' complaints that the neighborhood does not have enough parking to support his new establishment. He said that other O'Donnell Square taverns are expanding or opening new licensed businesses without providing street parking, while he has leased a 21-car lot nearby.

Merchants weigh in

McCusker and Clarke, both of whom said they also backed Ehrlich in the election, denied that their opposition to the tavern is driven by a desire to avoid competition. Both said they are motivated by the concerns of the Canton residents.

"If the community wanted this, I wouldn't have a right to fight it," McCusker said. "But because the community's against it, I'm going to fight it."

Community activists said McFaul tried but failed to sell his vision for the firehouse to residents at a community meeting in January. They said the vote against his project was overwhelming.

Clarke insists his opposition isn't personally motivated and that the McFauls would be welcomed if they were to buy an existing bar. But while Clarke insists he likes Marc McFaul, it seems the feeling isn't mutual.

Banners hanging from the firehouse accuse Claddagh and Nacho Mama's of unfair trade. Tavern supporters produced an "Axis of Weasel" bumper sticker lumping together Claddagh, Nacho Mama's and France.

'Like Saddam Hussein'

Howard E. "Hep" Preston, owner of the Geometrics hair salon on the square, accused Clarke and McCusker of spreading "lies" that the Firehorse would be the equivalent of Bohager's - a large bar near Fells Point known for its large crowds of young patrons.

"Michael Clarke's like Saddam Hussein. He just wants to control the neighborhood," Preston said.

The Rev. Ross Syracuse, pastor of St. Casimir Roman Catholic Church, said he has taken down the sign he had posted opposing the Firehorse - but not because he is any less adamant about stopping it.

"We want to separate ourselves from some people who have become a bit too personal in their objections," Ross said. "We feel a little uncomfortable with some of the ad hominems."

The priest said the neighborhood around St. Casimir, which sits across Kenwood Avenue from the Catholic school, is "overtaxed" with parking. He said the church routinely has to put up with vandalism, littering and noise from patrons of nearby taverns and fears another would make it worse.

"There are limits to what a neighborhood can support," he said.

Supporters of the bill are nervous about its prospects because the lead sponsor is 46th District Sen. George W. Della Jr. The Democratic lawmaker is hardly a favorite with the administration, having opposed Ehrlich on slot machines and other key votes.

Del. Peter A. Hammen, a Democrat who represents the 46th District, said he hopes the governor is "beyond that."

Hammen said public opinion in the neighborhood is running strongly against the proposed tavern. "They will not forget nor will they forgive, should the governor veto the bill," he said.

While Democratic gubernatorial candidate Kathleen Kennedy Townsend won 75 percent of the vote in Baltimore, Hammen pointed out that Ehrlich beat her in the neighborhood. In one Canton precinct, Ehrlich won 705-445.

An uphill battle

A veto would not necessarily end the battle. The McFauls need to withstand an appeal of a city zoning decision allowing a tavern in the firehouse. Then they must persuade the city liquor board to grant them a license in the face of community opposition.

Della said he has never heard of a governor vetoing a local bill and is confident the Democratic-led General Assembly would override such an action.

"It's a bad precedent to set when you veto a local bill, and I would hope the legislature would recognize that," he said.